Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko might have been trying to create a "three vs
one" configuration – Berlin, Paris and Kiev against Moscow – during his
brief visit to the German capital on Monday but his ambitions (some might
consider unhealthy if not downright malign) were doomed to fail.
Kiev's top
official appears to never tire of blaming Russia for the
Ukrainian civil war sparked by a US-sponsored coup, although Moscow is not
a party to the deadly conflict.
Unlike Kiev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French
President Francois Hollande strongly oppose alienating Russia and siding
with Poroshenko to oppose Moscow is out of the question,
Tagesschau news service reported following the trilateral meeting.
"Three versus Russia? No, underscores the German
government. One cannot cut ties with Moscow even if a new meeting [in the
Normandy format] has not been scheduled yet. Poroshenko has to understand
that Berlin and Paris count on diplomacy, including talks with all
relevant countries," the media outlet noted.
Russia, Germany and France maintain that the Ukrainian
civil war could only be solved through diplomatic means and not
with a military solution. Ukrainian authorities do not have 100-percent
faith in a peaceful resolution and have often asked the West
to provide Kiev with lethal weapons.
The Minsk
II agreements signed in mid-February were meant to pave the way
for the de-escalation in the Donbass region and a constitutional
reform aimed at protecting the rights and freedoms of Ukraine's
eastern regions.
The Minsk peace process is stalling and the August 24
meeting in Berlin was supposed to provide an impulse
to accelerate it, Tagesschau asserted.
"The implementation of the deal is not going
smoothly. The West demands that Kiev engage in talks with the
self-defense forces and bring about the federalization
of Ukraine," the media outlet stated.
Source: Sputnik News 25-08-2015
